The Committee of the Vittoriosa Stars Youth Football Nursery, with the assistance of the Vittoriosa Local Council, recently hosted a function to mark the launch of the official football kits that will be used in the next football season by the children that attend this nursery.

This function took place in Couvre Porte, the Vittoriosa Local Council’s premises.

The launch of these kits was only made possible through the intervention of Vittoriosa’s Mayor and the Vittoriosa’s Local Councillors who managed to rope in three entities that are now actively backing the nursery.

These entities are the internationally renowned yachting company, Camper & Nicholsons and its local operators the Grand Harbour Marina who manage the marina in Vittoriosa, together with the leading real estate company, Dhalia Real Estate, that recently set up office in Vittoriosa. Another two sets of kits were donated by the international goalkeeper Thomas Gunther, a swiss national who played for 10 years with FC Basle in Switzerland and who is now residing permanently in Vittoriosa. Thomas Gunther also offered his services to the locality’s nursery.

These kits will be distributed free to all the children who registered with the nursery up till the end of the last football season and will also be made available to any new male or female applicants that will join the nursery as from the next football season.

The Vittoriosa Stars Youth Football Nursery was originally set up in 1993 by Vittoriosa’s present mayor John Boxall but folded some years later.

In 2007 attempts were made to re-establish this nursery but these attempts successfully materialised only this year when the nursery engaged the services of the Vittoriosa-born and renowned ex-premier league goalkeeper Saviour Darmanin as its head coach and when the nursery moved its training sessions to the De La Salle synthetic football grounds.

The football nursery’s main aim is to provide a healthy environment for the children of Vittoriosa and its environs, for the development of both their character and their technical abilities. This nursery also aims to intertwine sport activities with cultural activities so as to culturally enrich the children.

The theme of the nursery is “RESPECT” because every child has the right to enjoy sport in a fun, safe environment but sadly sometimes over enthusiastic parents and carers can often create an atmosphere where a child is fearful of making mistakes.

This often means they turn their back on football and the vital healthy lifestyle it cultivates at an early age. Therefore a child’s wishes and right to enjoy oneself have to be respected.

A short presentation video produced by the some of the under 15 nursery players was played on the day. This video represented the history of the nursery, how the nursery’s rebirth came about, the events that took place in the 2008/2009 football season and outlined the plans for the future.

This was followed by the presentation of the kits by Ben Stuart, General Manager of the Grand Harbour Marina who represent in Malta the international company Camper and Nicholsons, Franco Valletta, Chairman of Dhalia Real Estate and Thomas Gunther, the ex international Swiss goalkeeper. The kits were presented to Vittoriosa’s Mayor, Mr Boxall.

In his speech the Mayor, on behalf of Vittoriosa’s Local Council, thanked Grand Harbour Marina and Dhalia Real Estate, Thomas Gunther, Matthew Dimech, the owner of Café du Brazil in Vittoriosa and all the other proprietors of the various shops in Vittoriosa who helped make the activity possible. The Mayor confessed that this assistance could only be considered as an investment in the children and a guarantee for their future and this not only in the sports sector but also for the benefit of society in general.

The Mayor particularly thanked all those volunteers that took the initiative to re-establish this nursery in Vittoriosa and, in the Local Council’s name, he promised them all the assistance possible in the running of this nursery.

He encouraged the parents that were present to start contributing some of their time to this nursery and thus help the volunteers who were giving up their free time to assist the nursery’s children.

The Mayor referred to the speech that was delivered by one of the very young members of the football nursery, Matthew Agius, who said that “we the children of this nursery have to do our part so that we not only make our City better but the best of all and in everything”.

The evening continued with a reception and the invitees included several distinct personalities and the parents of the nursery’s children.